Page 113 of The Fighter
“Of course, you can trust us. We haven’t told anyone.” I pushed Raven behind me, indicating that I wouldn’t let anyone hurt her.
“Good, but that Michael – we can’t have him talking. Solo, you’ll pay him a visit.”
Pearl took a big step toward Magni. “No, this stops now!”
Magni hissed back in a low strained voice, “This is way over your head, Pearl. We’ll deal with this the Northlander way, or do you want people to know the truth and an army of weasels to come and knock down the door, demanding Khan isn’t the rightful heir? We have to protect our family. Our children.”
Pearl gave Khan a pleading look. “No. There are other ways. You could be proactive.”
“How?”
“Put the facts out there and offer to step aside if the people prefer someone else over you. Let your results as a ruler speak for themselves and let the people decide if they want you.”
Khan scrunched up his face. “You’re talking about an election.”
“Yes. Offer to lead as you’ve done so far. If the people want someone else, we can always go live by that beautiful beach that Magni always talked about.”
Magni scoffed and was panting a little when he spoke, “Don’t listen to her, Khan. The Northlands is our home country.”
Pearl remained calm. “Don’t forget that there are ten million people here and it’s their home country too. Living in fear that someone finds out and overthrows Khan is no way to live, and I’ll have no part in killing any more innocent people because of what happened in the past.” Looking around like she was challenging each and every one of us, Pearl asked. “Who in here thinks that Khan could win a democratic election?”
Mila and Raven’s hands went up right away, mine followed with Laura’s and Erika’s. Pearl raised her hand and looked at Magni and Solo. “What do you think?”
Magni groaned. “I can’t believe we’re even discussing this. Are we talking before or after revealing the truth?”
“After.” She looked around at those of us with our hands raised. “Who thinks the people would choose Khan despite everything?”
Solo looked down, Erika lowered her hand, and Laura’s raised arm sunk a bit too.
Magni spoke in a gruff voice, “Not me. They’ll think you’ve lost your sanity if you offer to give up your power. Why would you do that?”
“Because it’s just a matter of time before the truth about my heritage comes out, and I don’t want my fucking head on a spear in the front garden like what happened to King Jeremiah.”
“That was two hundred years ago,” Magni protested.
“Then you take a pick of how rulers and kings have ended their lives in this country. It’s not pretty.”
“Listen, we’ll do a test. We might still be biological brothers.”
Khan picked up the picture of Nikolai Wolf that looked like an older version of him. “I wish, but I don’t fucking think so.”
“We will always be brothers. We share the same mother.” Magni closed his eyes like he was about to pass out of exhaustion.
Pearl pulled at Khan’s shirt. “You always knew you were the son of a ruthless tyrant, now it’s just a different one.”
Khan’s voice was cold as he looked down at her. “Yeah, one who raped women.” He turned his back on her, but she pulled him around and got close to his face.
“You’re almost forty-six years old, Khan, and you haven’t raped a woman yet, so it’s clearly not been passed down to you.”
Khan leaned his head back. “Fuuuck, I just remembered something.”
“What?” Pearl was stroking his arm up and down.
“When I was around eighteen a man was accused of mistreating his wife. During the trial it came out that he had raped her daily. Dad, I mean Marcus, killed him in a public display of what I assumed was insanity. Do you remember, Magni?”
When no answer came, Laura turned and touched Magni who had drifted off.
He opened his eyes. “What?”
